One-time member of Ballett Frankfurt and founder of the Pretty Ugly company, Amanda Miller's reputation rests on the physical impact of her language and her bold approach to tradition. In this reinvention of Giselle, Miller probes deeper into the heart and mind of a tragic heroine, so unswervingly in love that she will die of a broken heart. At the same time she studies her own relationship to ballet tradition and history as well as her response to the classic character of Giselle as an icon of 19th- century ballet, and a lost culture of Romanticism.

· Queen Elizabeth Hall, SE1, Thu 11 & Fri 12

The Royal Ballet: La BayadèreLondon

The Royal open their new season in reliably glamorous style with this full-on revival of Natalia Makarova's staging of La Bayadère that is bound to please audiences looking for the full sparkle of ballet. Halfway between sublime classicism and shamelessly kitsch exotica, Petipa's ballet is a parade of fabulous costumes and wonderful dancing. The first cast in this production stars Tamara Rojo, who reprises her moonlit, haunted interpretation of the character of Nikiya; Marianela Nuñez as the brazen, predatory Gamzatti and Carlos Acosta as the hapless Solor, who finds himself having to choose between them. Later in its run the ballet will also feature some promising debuts - both Zenaida Yanowsky and Sara Lamb will be essaying their first Nikya, and David Makhateli and Alexandra Ansanelli, who will be dancing Solor and Gamzatti respectively.

· Royal Opera House, WC2, Sat 6 to Oct 27

English National Ballet: The Snow Queen

Liverpool

Full-length ballets are an increasingly expensive luxury to create, but ENB are pushing out the boat for this new work from Michael Corder. Promised to be much more than a pre-Christmas filler, Corder's retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen story will be set to Julian Philips's arrangement of the Prokofiev ballet score The Stone Flower, combined with other pieces of the composer's music. Designer Mark Bailey aims to convey both the majestic sweep and the psychological resonance of this classic tale about a boy who for whom a tiny sliver of glass, accidentally lodged in his eye, becomes the starting point of a journey towards the frozen wastes of the human spirit.

Christmas is coming unseasonably early this year, courtesy of Northern Ballet Theatre, as the company opens the tour of their new staging of The Nutcracker, the ever-popular magical tale where a little girl dreams of the Nutcracker prince and a great battle. After David Nixon's last radical raid on the classical repertory, an unforgettable sci-fi update of Sleeping Beauty, traditionalists may be relieved to know that this version of Nutcracker has all the tutus and period decoration required by convention. Choreography and costumes are both by Nixon himself and set designs by Charles Cusick Smith, making this straight down the line storytelling, from the magical machinations of Herr Drosselmeyer, to Clara's battle with the mice and the spectacular treats unfolded by the Sugar Plum Fairy in her famous kingdom of the Sweets.